I crave constant approval

1. Nut. Not a Nut.
I am not a nut. He he.
But I ain't getting a flu shot. My kid neither.

abcnews - Flu Shots May Build Fewer Antibodies in Kids

"Annual vaccination against influenza is effective but may have potential drawbacks that have previously been under-appreciated and that are also a matter of debate."

"Potential drawbacks". "Under-appreciated". Nice.

So, I'm a nut. Not really. All I'm saying... if you're elderly or sick, then go get a flu shot. If you're not, then why in the world would you? It's pretty simple. Without getting a flu shot, I don't have to worry about any risk of anything. I'll trade maybe some sick days for not getting a flu shot every year, side effects or no.

Of course, this is from someone who has never had the flu, so please disregard all this and continue on to the boffo book review.

2. Rules of Civility

Book: Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
Review: 5 bill-stars (out of 5)... wonderful!
Goodreads link: www.goodreads.com/review/show/241367905

This book is like a great lobster bisque: rich and light. This is one of my (new) favorite books.

The setting is NYNY in 1938. The plot and atmosphere and characters are all very compelling. I felt immersed in a tall tale with real people riding the wave of times that are simultaneously tough and great.

The writing style was truly special. Towles is so witty without seeming to try hard. Maybe it's me, but Towles seems to be a bit of a goof. I just imagine him cracking up at a lot of the fun stuff as he writes it. There's a very positive feeling throughout the book.

QOTD

I turned to find a woman in her midforties in a skirt suit and glasses standing at a respectful distance. She had lovely red hair tied back in a ponytail. It gave her the appearance of a starlet playing the part of a spinster.
- Rules of Civility, Amor Towles

The female lead has a great name: Katie Kontent. Not Kontent. That's Kontent... "like the state of being" (he he). It's interesting to have a female first person narrator with a male writer.

QOTD

It goes to show that even a man who craves constant approval can attain self-assurance through a little hanky-panky.
- Rules of Civility, Amor Towles

This is the author's first novel: www.amortowles.com. His day job. He's a hedge fund guy. Ha! Towles had a great way of avoiding quotation marks. He begins dialog with a dash. Excellent! It's simple and easy on the eyes.

For the hell of it, here's the book's namesake... George Washington's rules of civility: www.history.org/almanack/life/manners/rules2.cfm

Ya know, 5 bill-stars to Anderson's Bookstore as well. Anderson's has hand-written employee recommendations posted by a lot of books, which is how I found this one. I can't understand why more places don't do this. It's powerful magic to get someone's real opinion and feelings written down on a little index card about a book they enjoyed. For some reason, the impact of these tiny cards is much greater than the zillions of reviews online. Anderson's is a good source of new books for me that I would never have found otherwise, and I'm willing to pay them the extra $$$ for the pleasure.

peace... yow, bill

Drinkin again

"Christmas cookie by Ty"

Grab some Frank Sinatra... the CD is called Nothing But the Best.

QOTD

Yeah, I'm drinkin again
And thinking of when
When you loved me

I'm havin a few
And wishing that you
were here
- Frank, Drinking Again

1. Te-bow!
I caught my first snootful o Tim Tebow action this weekend.
The network nabobs switched to the Denver game in the 4th quarter, and we got to see (yet another) Tebow 4th quarter comeback victory.

It's not worthy to talk about the media and other NFL lunkheads. The bad apples out there are a given. FWIW, Tebow seems to be the real deal, both as a football player and as a human being. And he is a joy to watch... in the 4th quarter. Ha!

Note: Tebow easily broke free of this tackle attempt.

2. Land grab

The EU is "staring into the abyss". There are big, big problems with the EU. Fortunately, the NY Times has the answer... more EU.

nytimes - Euro Zone Leaders may have to accept tighter union

Forget about more EU being the answer for the current EU problems. Forget about people's motivation for a second.

Who benefits if a bigger, badder EU is created from this crisis? 

The pols that are creating it, of course. Our pols benefited from our financial crises (TARP, bailouts, etc) to increase their power and broadly expand the federal budget with a snap of their fingers. Even the repubs are no longer talking about returning the fed budget to 2008 levels.

Speaking of Europe, Cramer went berserk last night. It's not that he's going to be right or wrong. It's that he can portend Armageddon on CNBC, and nobody says he's crazy.

QOTD2

We are in DEFCON 3, two stages from a financial collapse so huge it's hard to get your mind around.
- Jim Cramer, on the European debt crisis, foxnews link

And perhaps Cramer isn't crazy. We shall see.
And now for something completely different... pickup truck in the Jew-el parking lot this weekend:

QOTD3

If Mary was pro-choice,
then there would be NO Christmas
- bumper sticker

he he... yow, bill

Deliberate practice

1. Thanksgiving movie
Q: The only good Thanksgiving movie?

A: Planes, Trains and Automobiles (rotten)

2. Hugo, the (disappointing) movie

Movie: Hugo
Review: 2 bill-stars (out of 5)... not good

Oh well, he said...

• I liked the book, 3 bill-stars: williamt review
• 97 flippin percent on rotten tomato: www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hugo/
• Ebert gave it 4 stars: ebert review
• And it's Martin Scorcese, for jiminy sake

Hugo was a dud. It wasn't just me. The credits rolled, the lights came up, and the bored Saturday night crowd walked out of the theater without any buzz or laughter or even discussion. Like I said, oh well.

3. YAGWOOPS

Yet another global warming oops.
Climate models have overstated the impact of CO2in warming the Earf (as Ty would say). Oops.

bbc - CO2 climate sensitivity overestimated

Absorb this nonsense, back to back...

"The effect of CO2 on climate is less than previously thought"

"The authors stress the results do not mean threat from human-induced climate change should be treated any less seriously"

4. Deliberate practice
The Freaks talk about (freaks - Motivation is necessary, but insufficient) learning through what they call, deliberate practice:

• We must somehow think deeply about the problems and reflect on what did and did not work

• Deliberate practice requires sustained concentration, and the rewards are subtle and apparent only in the long term.

• Thus, one needs motivation in order to enter into and sustain the hard work of deliberate practice.

Excellent!

5. One more Ted RIP

QOTD

They print the money. When they print too much, it goes into activities that aren’t economic. When the interest rate is too low, people aren’t careful. Borrowers can pay back in depreciated dollars. They barely need to put any of their own money into a project. If interest rates are 7%, they need to calculate its potential profitability.
- Ted Fortsmann, on the Federal Reserve, big picture post

Is this a fundamental notion? Not a symptom. Cheap dollars have floated around for more than a decade sending our economic system whirring in the wrong direction, uncorrected by market discipline. It certainly sounds good and reasonable. You can apply this principle to the feds as well... cranking out $10 trillion in deficit spending since 2000 on all manner of nonsense.
yow, bill

Hugo, the book

"I wonder what Martini put in those drinks"

2. Hugo review
Book: The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Review: 3 bill-stars (out of 5)... good
Goodreads link: www.goodreads.com/review/show/239481817



Hugo is good. It's a young adult book with the same half-story, half-drawing format as Selznick's Wonderstruck (williamt review), but it's not nearly as good. It was a fun, light 2-3 hour read, and now I'm ready for the movie this weekend. Yow!

Some tasty synchronicity... Selznick mentions the automaton at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia as an inspiration to his Hugo book. Ty and I saw that guy last summer during our baseball trip. Excellent.

Maillardet's Automaton at the Franklin Institute

Hugo movie review coming soon.
hopefully... yow, bill

Why turkeys are so expensive this year

"Mothra"

1. Turkey $$$

I glorped when I bought my little turkey this week. So... zee question.

Q: Why are turkey prices so high?

A: Turkey farmers were crushed in the 2008 crash/crisis, so now they are more cautious now about how many turkeys they raise. Less supply, same demand, prices go up. Banks are also cautious giving out loans to turkey farmers since the crash. Thank you WSJ: Turkey prices are taking flight.

Postscript: I saw CNBC last night, and they said that turkey prices were higher because grain prices were higher. Hmm, I said. Let's check that out. Here's a chart of the price of corn over the past couple years. That looks like a pretty hefty increase to me. So, we'll add the price of feed as another reason for expensive turkeys.

2. My fave people

Golly. Lots of my fave public figures are popping up in the news.

Theodore Forstmann - passed away at age 71. He is the co-founder of school choice trailblazer, the Children's Scholarship Fund. My brother Brad mentioned the Children's Scholarship Fund to me years ago, and that led me to find the Big Shoulders Fund here in Chicago.

You don’t see his name on buildings around town like so many other financiers’, but Teddy gave away hundreds of millions for scholarships, schools and other projects. If he ever bragged to me, it was over his early and strong support of school choice, and his love for the two children he adopted from Africa.
- Charlie Gasparino, Teddy Forstmann - Capitalist saint

And a wonderful QOTD from his WSJ obit...

"The entrepreneur, as a creator of the new and a destroyer of the old, is constantly in conflict with convention. He inhabits a world where belief precedes results, and where the best possibilities are usually invisible to others. His world is dominated by denial, rejection, difficulty, and doubt. And although as an innovator, he is unceasingly imitated when successful, he always remains an outsider to the 'establishment.'"
- WSJ obit

And if Teddy isn't your hero yet... it looks like he was dating uber-hotter-than-hot Padma Whatshername. Jiminy.

Lenore Skenazy - runs www.freerangekids.com and has a wonderful article about leaving your gol darn kids be kids in today's WSJ: The war on childhood.

Paul Ryan - (wisely) voted against the Balanced Budget Amendment bill this week.

Spending is the problem, yet this version of the BBA makes it more likely taxes will be raised, government will grow, and economic freedom will be diminished. Without a limit on government spending, I cannot support this Amendment.
- Paul Ryan, abcnews link

Michelle Rhee - no big news, she is still awesome and still running Students First, a lobbying group for school choice. And Michelle Rhee... looking awfully good these days. Yow!

The common thread between these fab 4... freedom, choice, individual liberty and responsibility. Excellent!
yow, bill

PS - Bonus coverage!

QOTD Bonus

"When a true genius appears in this world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."
- J Swift, link

PPS - (from Ty) Bonus video!

youtube - Ninja squirrel vs. Stoners

 

Beermosa

QOTD

Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!
- Harry Truman, to a critic who panned his Truman's daughter's singing (wikipedia)

Give em hell, Harry. Ah, the manly life before birth control pills. Sorry, inside joke.

1. Beermosa

Jeez, try this. You know a mimosa is champagne + orange juice. Switch that to half beer, half OJ... and you have a tasty beermosa. Beauty!

I'm a bumpkin, so a beermosa qualifies as "exotic booze" in my book.

QOTD

Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away
If you can use some exotic booze
There's a bar in far Bombay
Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away
- Sinatra

2. Field this
Book: The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
Review: 2 bill-stars (out of 5)... meh
Goodreads link: www.goodreads.com/review/show/238496948

This is a plot book... one that relies mostly on an intricate story, which isn't really my thing. The plot is OK, and hey, I finished the book. But shit just sort of happens, and I never felt really a part of it. The plot feels like a made up story, rather than us peeking into a real situation of real people. The characters in the plot are flat. Worst of the troika, the writing style is, oof, pragmatic. It's linear and style free. It's all 3rd person, "here's what happened", plop.

Here's an example. One of the main characters is a 60 year-old academic phenom who is now president of a university. He is portrayed as a towering figure and a renowned lady-killer. So, at 60 years-old, blammo... he has an affair with a 20 year-old male student... his first gay experience, risking his entire professional life. Can this happen? Sure. And hey, I'm pro-gay. I totally gay. I'm so gay, I'm straight. But was this at all convincing in the book? No. This was true with many of the plot twists throughout the book. The baseball details seemed contrived too.

Also pretty annoying... the author is co-founder of ultra-leftie magazine, n+1: www.nplusonemag.com. So, leftie dogma is liberally (he he) littered throughout the book. Reading this emotional plea about the ethics of solar panels and houses painted white (to reflect the sun's heat, sigh), I couldn't tell if the character (or the author) was serious or not. In an incredible act of politically correct gymnastics, "freshmen" are called "freshpersons" by the author. Snort.

If you have leftie characters in your novel... that's cool. You want to write a leftie morality tale... I think that's cool too. But political peddling by the author during a novel is really unappealing.Whether you're a leftie or a rightie.

3. Fido the Fox

This 50 year Russian experiment to domesticate foxes is incredible... this 10 minute video is worthy:

The Silver Fox Experiment: How dogs became dogs

The idea: grab a bunch of silver foxes from the wild, breed only the most docile, and just 8 generations later you get tame foxes that behave like dogs. Also, the change is genetic (nature), not behavioral (nurture). Wow.
yow, bill

Photo for sale

1. Big photo $$$

Ty cracked up at a photograph selling for millions of dollars. It was this one:

Here's the story: freaks - The world's most expensive photograph
And to answer Ty: Why is Andreas Gursky's Rhine II the most expensive photograph?

Here's the 2nd most expensive photograph. It's Untitled #97 by Cindy Sherman (link)... but of course.

Other than being expensive, both photos are also pretty big. Rhein II is 6x11 feet. And #97 is about 4x2.5 feet. The whole notion seems a bit of a head-scratcher, but whatever.

Now, here's a photograph that is far more affordable. I call it "Washed up bobble #5".

2. Design by (not) committee
You ask user focus groups whether they want a disk drive in their PC laptop, and they answer "Yes!". This impulse has probably kept disk drives alive in laptops longer than they should have. Apple doesn't design by committee and doesn't have this problem.

QOTD

"Apple is different. The Apple of Steve Jobs held focus groups in contempt. In essence, Jobs believed consumers don't know what they want until you give it to them."
- cnet article

huzzah... yow, bill

Positivity - young and green

"Orchard"

1. Jr. High Apps

Here's a wonderful, young guy writing apps for iOs in Junior High.

yahoo - Junior high app developer

QOTD

"These days, students know, usually know, a little bit more than teachers... with the technology... [pause]... so... [long pause]... sorry."
- Thomas Suarez, 6th grader and app writer (about 3:30 in the video above)

2. Not my cow!

Al Gore had this problem too. The planet is burning up, and cows are as bad for global warming as SUV's, but the green guys ain't giving up their burgers and bacon...

freaks - Agnostic Carnivores and Global Warming

"I don't have a cow in this fight."
Snort.

3 . No scissors!

This is some stupid protest in Europe.
I just like these "No scissors" protest signs.

Source: wsj - Turmoil spreads in Europe

excellent... yow, bill

The real use of power

1. NBA

The NBA players gave the owners the finger today.
The mouth of Sauron speaks.

QOTD

"We’re about to go into the nuclear winter of the NBA."
- David Stern, link

It's weird when synapses just fire. Things remotely related in some obscure way. Who knows why. The real use of power, maybe?

QOTD2

"Due to the Nakatomi corporation's legacy of greed around the globe, they're about to be taught a lesson in the real use of power...you will be witnesses"
- Hans Gruber, link

2. Orabrush

Great, American story: inventor, entrepreneur, marketing, the internet, Walmart, working hard, college kids, blah blah blah. All over a toothbrush for your tongue. Ha!

The Orabrush Story

In that last video, I love their Facebook ad to recruit Walmart. They placed an ad in Facebook saying that Walmart employees had bad breath and needed the Orabrush in their stores. It worked like a charm.

QOTD

"OK, we saw your ad. Very funny. You can stop running your ad now."
- Walmart, to the Orabrush guys

excellent... yow, bill

Busy, busy, busy

"Lisle tree"

1. Night of the Hunter

Movie: Night of the Hunter
Review: 2 bill-stars (out of 5)... not worth it

This movie's draw was Robert Mitchum being all crazy and menacing, trying to get his hands around the necks of a couple of kids. Mitchum plays essentially the same role as in Cape Fear. There are two other superstars in this tiny movie:

• Shelley Winters - She's hardly in there at all... just a few minutes.
• Lillian Gish - She wraps the movie up and is very strong and interesting to watch.

All these actors were pretty much wasted on an production that is amateurish in every aspect. This surprised me a bit, so I dug a little into IMDB.

• The director is Charles Laughton of Mutiny on the Bounty fame. It looks like this is his only effort as a director. Smart move, Captain Bligh. 
• The screenplay was written by a guy named James Agee. He did some writing, but this is his only screenplay.

So, my amateur hour reaction to the whole thing was right on the mark.

2. Cat's Cradle
Book: "Cat's Cradle" by Vonnegut
Review: 5 bill-stars (out of 5)... easy 5 stars
Goodreads link: www.goodreads.com/review/show/234616059

Cmon. This is Vonnegut's best. It's one of my favorite books. Original and great. Ice nine, and Newt the midget, and Lionel Boyd Johnson, I mean, Bokonon (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokononism), and Mona Aamons Monzano, and the end of the world and... A wonderful read!


busy, busy, busy... yow, bill

Roll the crap

I'm not sure why the macro button on my camera doesn't work better. Hmm.

"Missing puzzle piece"

Dick Durbin got the crap rolling yesterday. I heard Durbin on the radio yesterday, harumphing about Penn State and how the feds might have to take over pedophile cases because the states weren't up to it. I smiled, thinking of Durbin and remembering a bit from the Vonnegut I had just read.

"I could carve a better man from a banana."

1. Roll the crap

Herman Cain
Woah. It's a Herman Cain hit piece. This is some repellant, ugly crap: Herman Cain caught on camera joking about Anita Hill. Zero ethics. Zero standards. Lowest common denominator. Right there for ya. Hey, it was a special news bulletin thingie at the very top on Yahoo. Bonus coverage: this POS non-story comes complete with snarky cropped picture... Herman Cain with white women. Oh my!

TSA scanners
Those TSA full-body scanners are absolutely, 100% safe. They guaran-damn-tee it.
Oops. Maybe not.

U.S. Government Glossed Over Cancer Concerns As It Rolled Out Airport X-Ray Scanners

"I am concerned that there’s a perception that they’re not as safe as they could be"
- TSA nabob,  business week story


Nabob doctors
He he. This report was issued by some committee of nabob doctors: Children 9 to 11 should have cholesterol tested, report says People getting paid, baby. Every visit to the doctor's office has one constant: a solicitation to get a flu shot. Pay the man!

Obamacare
On its way to the Supreme Court, the Obamacare mandate was upheld by some lower court. My leftie brothers and sisters are all abuzz because one of the judges was a Reagan-appointed conservative. Now, you could put what I know about the law in a shot glass with tequila and still get a good buzz. But read the reasoning behind this decision.

"It [the Obamacare mandate] certainly is an encroachment on individual liberty, but it is no more so than a command that restaurants or hotels are obliged to serve all customers regardless of race"
- Judge ruling, link

So, restricting freedom in health care is like not allowing racism in restaurants... huh? And next up... there is no activity too small or passive that it can't be regulated and controlled by the feds.

"The right to be free from federal regulation is not absolute, and yields to the imperative that Congress be free to forge national solutions to national problems, no matter how local–or seemingly passive–their individual origins."
- Judge ruling, cont.

2. Positivity

Sorry for the negativity. Look, in the end, the Obamacare stuff is a godsend. It's all out in the open now. In your face. Americans will get their chance to vote in 2012 on staying American or going European.

Here's a incredible contrast to the bloated feds. In the midst of all the blather, Google is working hard to stay lean an mean.

Google’s Chief Works to Trim a Bloated Ship

That's true across the board isn't it? People are hunkering down. Working harder. Spending less. Saving more. More serious. Lean and mean.
Everyone but the feds.

And excellent. Hawk win last night. Cha!

yow, bill

Wonderstruck

1. Wonderstruck

Book: "Wonderstruck" by Brian Selznick
Review: 4 bill-stars (out of 5)... wonderful!
Goodreads link: www.goodreads.com/review/show/233749803

This is a wonderful book. It's a kid's book (well, pre-teen-ish), but it's a great read for adults as well. Wonderstruck achieves the creative two-fer: different and good.

Wonderstruck tells two stories simultaneously. One is a regular, old prose. The other story is told in pictures. The kicker is, of course, the two stories are intertwined in fun and interesting ways.

Part of Wonderstruck takes place in NYNY. The book discusses something called the New York Panorama, which is a huge model of New York City built for the 1964 World's Fair. I'd never heard of it before, and (google google) the panorama is a real thing. It's on display at Queen's Museum (www.queensmuseum.org/exhibitions/visitpanorama), and it looks absolutely amazing:

"The Panorama is the jewel in the crown of the collection of the Queens Museum of Art. Built by Robert Moses for the 1964 World’s Fair, in part as a celebration of the City’s municipal infrastructure, this 9,335 square foot architectural model includes every single building constructed before 1992 in all five boroughs; that is a total of 895,000 individual structures."

I read Wonderstruck before Ty did, so we'll see if he likes it as much as I did.

2. School choice

Here's a great story on Ted Forstmann, the founder of the Children's Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarships for kids to attend private or parochial school:

wsj - Forstmann's Not So Little Idea

QOTD

For years, no more frustrating belief has existed in American domestic politics than the possibility of giving inner-city children a better education. Against the public-school monopoly, sustained forward movement has seemed impossible. That may be changing. This year at least 13 states passed some form of school-choice legislation. Notably, Indiana's new voucher program is letting parents use public funds this fall to send their children to private, mostly religious, schools.
- Daniel Henninger, wsj - Forstmann's Not So Little Idea

Huzzah to Ted Forstmann and school choice!
yow, bill

Are you choking?!?

1. CPR class

Ty and I took the Naperville CPR class. It was OK. It was taught by Naperville firefighters.

naperville.il.us/cpraed.aspx

Here's the #1 thing I learned.

If there's an AED around. 

Use it.

Prior to taking this class, I wouldn't have touched one of those little defrib boxes on a dare. No way.
Turns out, they're built for dummies. The box talks and tells you what to do at each step. It's that easy. AED steps:

1. Turn it on
2. Do what it tells you to

That's right. You turn the AED on and it talks to you. Do this. Do that. For each step.

The overall CPR steps:

1. Make sure the scene is safe
2. Are you OK?
3. Get help (911, AED)
4. Do 30 compressions, 2 breaths... rinse and repeat

They tossed an interesting stat at us:

• CPR works about 10% of the time to save the guy
• Using an Automated external defibrillator (AED) works 50% of the time

Also, they told us that the Naperville Fire Department's goal is to be anywhere in the city in 6 minutes or less once they are called. Cool.

2. The Bill of Rights

Cornell Law School has a nice, tidy Bill of Rights online.

www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/billofrights

Or, if you want the whole magilla, here's the Constitution:

www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/

I reckon the founding fathers didn't figure on Fannie and Freddie in The Constitution. Dop.

QOTD

"Fannie Mae is relentless in their ability to suck. They have managed to tarnish the word ‘failure’."
- Howard Lindzon, post

And the easy punch line...

Freddie, Fannie executives snag millions in bonuses

good one... yow, bill

Apple bees

"Apple bees"

QOTD

"If you project forward 10 years, each person will share about 1,000 times more things per day than they are now."
- Mark Zuckerberg, reuters story

Blech. Good Lord. Count me out Mr. Facebook Guy.

1. Bukowski blah
Book: "Ham on Rye" by Charles Bukowski
Review: 1 bill-star (out of 5)... not good
Goodreads link: www.goodreads.com/review/show/232896144

Bukowksi's "Post Office" is one of my all-time favorite books (williamt review). He deals with the drudgery and shenanigans of working at the post office and being a knucklehead drunk with incredible wit and humor. I've read "Post Office" many times, especially on vacation because it is such a good vibe.

Alas "Ham on Rye" lacks any of these qualities. In "Ham on Rye", Bukowksi deals with his crappy childhood, and dang, it ain't funny at all. It's not witty either. It's just, pretty much, negative drudgery. Very disappointing.

Of course, the cherry on top: "Ham on Rye" is rated 4+ stars on both Amazon and goodreads. I don't get it, and it's okay. Vive la difference!
yow, bill

Unlocked vehicle

QOTD

"Police report: Golf clubs stolen from vehicle"
- Naperville police report on "golf clubs and equipment taken from unlocked vehicle", link

1. Fed spending is now 26% of GDP!
We do not have a tax problem. We have a spending problem.

Source: blog.heritage.org/2011/11/04/infographic-why-spending-is-the-problem/

It's easy... cut fed spending back to its 50 year average of 20% or lower.
Thank you to the boys at the Morning News for the link. The Morning News... the hardest working news men in Lisle, IL.

2. Huzzah to The Ville
"The termination of the [red light camera] contract will ultimately cost the city $261,000 in projected revenue in the current and next fiscal years."

Gol dang. Kudos to Naperville. They're pulling traffic light cameras even though they make the city a ton of dough.

Naperville will abandon red-light cameras

Good for us!



3. Nuanced
I googled the guy who wrote this article. I can't find that he has an axe to grind either way. It's a more nuanced (blech) look at the recent global warming data from some Berkeley dude.

wsj - Global temperatures: All over the map

I like these best:

• The planet hasn't been warming for more than a decade... "fluctuations in the land temperature for the past 13 years make it extremely difficult to say whether the Earth has been continuing to warm during that time"
• The US, Europe and many other places have no warming over 70 years... "Much of the U.S. and Northern Europe has cooled in the last 70 years, Berkeley Earth found. So did one-third of all weather stations world-wide, while two-thirds warmed"

The guy who ran the temperature study proclaimed, "you should not be a skeptic, at least not any longer." OK. Any other advice, poindexter?
the ville... yow, bill

Will run for chocolate

1. Hot Chocolate 15K

I ran the Hot Chocolate 15K yesterday. My time was 1:17.40. That's an 8:20 pace... slower than my goal of 1:15 and an 8 min/mile pace.

It was so crowded I couldn't even get an 8 minute pace going most of the times. I ran 9 miles like a Chicago cabbie. Accelerate. Stand on the brake. Curse. Accelerate. And so on. We were barely jogging at the start line, and I think that almost all of my 2-3 minutes overtime was due to a 10-11 minute first mile. I don't quite "get" why it was so crowded because I've run the Chicago Half Marathon with a million people in it, and it was fine.

Bah. Other than the shoulder-to-shoulder running, it was a wonderful day!

1. We had absolutely gorgeous November weather! 
2. I had brunch with Molly and my tulips after the race. Ty's nickname is now "Sweets". Punkin beer after running 9 miles. Yum!
3. Under my breath, I muttered ill will at the "losers" in line at the port-a-potty at mile 1. Mile 1, for jiminy sake!
4. I took my port-a-potty negativity back at mile 5 when I saw a girl swerve off the course, find a little notch in the buildings, pull her shorts down and pee. OK, maybe standing in line at the potty isn't so bad.
5. Speaking of girls. You take the incredibly attractive collection of women that make of the city girls in Chicago. Take that group and filter it by those who can run 9 miles. Yow!
6. Quote of the Race While Running: "So. I'm sexting my ex again."
7. Best race sign (people rooting by the side of the street): "Keep running, total stranger!"
8. This was a wonderful highlight too. After the race:

[Tired, slumping runner approaches]
Little girl: Daddy!
[hug]
Little girl: Did you win!
Dad: Sure.
Little girl: YEAH!!!

Here's a Ty pic. I'm playing Frisbee with a statue after the run. Huzzah!

2. Book review

Book: "By Nightfall" by Michael Cunninngham
Review: 2 bill-stars (out of 5)... not worth it
Goodreads link: www.goodreads.com/review/show/231850511

This is a story about malaise. And whining. It's the malaise that accompanies privilege and success and middle age too, I guess. It's a very whiny story about a whiny guy. The main character is a successful art dealer in Manhattan. He's middle age and yet still brimming with teen angst. Most of the characters in the book are completely self-absorbed. Blech.

I thought Cunningham's writing style was OK. The book was a light and fast read, and the ending was not bad. But it's a tough slog when you have virtually no likeable characters and the focus of the story is a constant blizzard of complaining. Silly example: the art dealer has an stomach ache, so he worries that maybe he has stomach cancer. Jeez.

While I was reading "By Nightfall", I thought of Woody Allen. He covers all this stuff: city angst, middle age whining, the malaise of success, etc. But Woody does it with humor and sarcasm. It felt like Cunningham meant for us to take all this stuff very seriously and to extract some life lesson from it all: rich, successful and attractive people complaining about everything and anything. Cmon!
yow, bill

Cancer blizzard

"Yellow apple(s)"

1. Cancer schmancer

There's been an odd blizzard of "this causes cancer" articles lately. Maybe it's global warming?

Drinking Wine
One glass of wine a day increases risk of breast cancer: research - "women who drink just four small glasses of wine a week increase their risk of developing breast cancer by 15 per cent"

Sitting
Prolonged sitting linked to breast cancer, colon cancer - "If you've sat for an hour, you've probably sat too long"

Eating Meat
New cancer risk linked to overcooked meat - "eating overcooked meat is twice as likely to cause cancer than previously thought, especially when it is grilled or fried"

These are all the same guys, the same process, who trumpet the risk of second-hand smoke.

www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/effects-of-secondhand-smoke - "Nonsmokers increase their risk of developing lung cancer by 20% to 30% and heart disease by 25% to 30% when they are exposed to secondhand smoke."

What percentage of non-smokers get lung cancer? Teeny tiny, right? What's 20% more than that?

So, what's the fucking deal then? Well, Michael Crichton had it in his book "State of Fear" (amazon). "State of Fear" is about the science of global warming, but it works for medical science, too. Science that sells fear or calamity gets published and gets more $$$. Super simple.



2. Worse than cancer
Of course, there are worse ways to go than cancer:

1. You could die in the back of the Gwar tour bus (link)
2. You could be a HOF football player and OD on phen-phen, aka diet pills (link)
3. Or you could be overcome by toxic fumes working in a sewer (link)

Good lord.

3. Occupy williamt.com

Ack. What a negative post. This sucks.
Let's try this out... too long, but too dang funny:

Triumph Visits Occupy Wall Street

QOTD

"OK. I realize this is an important thing, and I want you to have your say.
So, go ahead. What's your cause besides wanting more M&M's in trail mix?"
- Triumph, question for one of Occupy Wall Street's heftier protestors

Also positive. I don't hear comparisons between Occupy and the Tea Party any more. Politics aside, the Tea Party guys did it right. Political. Non-violent. Clear message of personal freedom and small government.
I hope we see a repeat in 2012.
yow, bill

PS - Sorry. Couldn't resist. Gwar. He he.



PPS - Sorry again. Triumph the Insult Comic dog. Ha!